Weekend Open Thread
I’m going to chill out for a while, so here – entertain yourselves. I’m sure everyone can’t wait to find out what’s on the menu, but for me, it’s just a white Belgian beer and a Miami-rolled cigar. Have fun.
Category: Open thread
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Chili Beef Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients:
Olive oil, for frying
8 oz (about 1/2 a pound) lean ground beef
8 oz (about 1/2 a pound) ground pork
Toasted sesame oil, for frying
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1–2 red chilies, de-seeded and chopped
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
Zest of 1 lime, 1 tbsp lime juice
3 green onions, trimmed and chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 heads, little gem lettuce, separated into leaves, to serve
For the dressing
Ingredients:
1 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 red chilli, thinly sliced
1 Small bunch of cilantro leaves, chopped
1–2 tsp fish sauce, to taste
1 tsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
Direction:
Heat a large frying pan and add a little oil. Mix the ground beef and pork together. Season with salt and pepper and mix well to ensure the seasoning is evenly distributed. Fry the ground beef and pork in the hot pan for 5–7 minutes until crisp, brown and broken down to a fine consistency.
Drain the ground cooked meat in a sieve – this will help it stay crispy. Set aside.
Wipe out the pan and add a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil. Add the garlic, ginger and chili. Fry with a pinch of salt and the sugar for 2 minutes.
Add the drained meat and stir to mix.
Add the fish sauce and heat through.
Stir in the lime zest and juice, and then add the spring onions, stirring for 30 seconds. Turn off the heat.
Mix all the dressing ingredients together and adjust to taste.
To serve, spoon some of the mince mixture into the lettuce leaves, drizzle with a little dressing and serve.
Lovely served with an ice cold Guinness 🙂
Yum!
Sounds delicious, but it will have to wait for another time. Up to my neck in a Phase 1 ORE this weekend.
First, thanks to all those who welcomed me the other day; wasn’t sure of response etiquette and got busy cleaning out my garage and having mice leap out of boxes at me!
Second, a recipe some of y’all might appreciate – I came up with it after my husband shot a skunk and requested some kind of mixed drink to help clear the passages, if you know what I mean.
Skunkchaser cocktail
3 or so oz cognac
half as much Cuarante-y-Tres liqueur
1 tablespoon (generous) lemon syrup (homemade preferred, strong on the lemon oils)
1 splash amaretto
1 ice cube
Stir until most of the lemon syrup is free of the spoon and top up with seltzer water; stir lightly but briskly and serve.
A proper welcome:
Rooster Cogburn: Why, by God, girl, that’s a Mosin Nagant! You’re no bigger than a corn nubbin, what’re you doing with all this rifle?
Farmgirl with a Mosin Nagant: It belonged to my father, he carried it bravely in the war, and I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it if the law fails to do so.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, this’ll sure get the job done if you can find a fence post to rest it on while you take aim.
😉
Well, she DOES eventually shoot him.
Ha! It’s been too many years since I was small enough for anybody to say THAT about me, but thank you kindly. (Actually, I have two mosins – one to use and one for parts. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a deal.)
I too have a Mosin Nagant. Brought it home from Vietnam. I went to the local military surplus store, bought some rounds took it down too the local lake. Fired a few rounds. That was Jan. 1972. Haven’t fired it since!
Mine I’ve only had for a couple of years now; I can’t claim any cool stories as to where/how I got them. (Cabela’s gun counter is cool, but not in that way.) It’s my bear rifle, as we do get bear around here and I like having the potential chance of keeping them off my sheep.
Standard Russian infantry rifle. Some were mounted with a scope, used as a sniper rifle. rugged, dependable, five round stripper clip. Mine has the folding bayonet over the barrel.
When I was bringing mine home, the MP in Danang tried to take the bayonet off since it was not listed on my paperwork. After raking his arm across the sight in a futile attempt to take it off. Looked around to see if anyone was watching and said fk it, take it always got a chuckle when I think about that time.
Mine came with the full kit – bayonet, cleaning tool, etc. When I got them home, I attempted to get the bayonet on and I got it partway and then it stuck. My husband got home and tried to help me to either get it all the way on, or get it off, and well, despite having been made in 1939, that bayonet’s still sharp; he cut his hand on it and didn’t notice until he was going ‘funny, what’s that red stuff on the – holy crap it’s blood!’
I told him it didn’t cut me because my eastern European ancestry protected me, whereas his more Germanic ancestry… well.
I have a Russian friend who rebarrels Mosins with bull barrels, reloads, and regularly gets 1/4MOA groups. It’s every bit as capable as most other military bolts.
Here in Gulfport, Mississippi at the Armed Forces Retirement Home (formerly known as the United States Naval Home), I’ve been observing numerous UFOs on a daily basis.
Some are airplanes and/or helicopters, although I don’t know what airline or corporation is operating them.
Some are birds, although I don’t know what they’re called.
Some are insects, although I don’t know if they’re wasps or dragon flies.
Thus, due to my inability to determine specifically what these various objects may be, I must conclude that I’m actually viewing bonafide UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS ! ! !
John, watch out for those little green men, they may want to offer you a free alien anal probe
ummmm, yuck.
hey! show some respect! it’s called a boot in your ass! sheesh! 😉
http://static2.parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/green-army-men.jpg
Its called the Phildo Cleaning Tool.
All-Points Logistics has a patent.
I have been reading some WW II history lately, and noticed that there were liquor rations for the troops. I’m retired now so no benefit to me but:
Who got rid of the liquor ration and why?
Good questio! I myself and many another ME Vet have a very s#*tty attitude about General Order 1A.
In 1971 while being a grunt we had a beer and soda ration. Three beers and three sodas, to last three days. Until we were re supplied.
I’m trying hard to remember,as it was a long time ago in a land far,far away,but I think that the ration card we were issued in RVN (1971) had the liquor/wine section crossed off for anyone under 21. The case lot beer and cigarettes section (six cartons per month)were left alone, but we young uns couldn’t buy hard liquor by the bottle. I guess a lot of that had to do with possible black marketing. But beer by the can was only a nickel anyway if it wasn’t provided for free. IIRC, smokes were $1.70 a carton and a carton of Kools would get you a Boom Boom Long Time.
I never did much drinking over there anyway. It seemed the only beers available to us was Blatz and Carling Black Label. And most of that was the 3.2 stuff. I guess the good brands all ended up on Camp Eagle and the unwanted brands went to Phu Bai.
I don’t remember a ration card. In 1971 I was 22-23 depending on the month. What I do remember is we would go out beyond the wire for seven to ten days. Every third day would be a log day. Meaning re supply with a hot meal, fresh water, ice. Cream if we were lucky. c’s and lrp meals. Plus a beer and soda ration. I don’t know who paid for the. Beer and sodas, but it wasn’t us.
Usually we would come back in for two days and a wake up. Then go back out again. Those two days behind the wire, I’ve never been so drunk in my life. That booze we had to pay for. But like you say at a nickel a pop a guy could get pretty liquored up.
Well,as you learned later on in your tour I was the guy in the left gunners well of that every three days resupply bird. I was only 19/20 for my time. But I do remember trading Archie & Jughead comic books for LRRP rations whenever possible.
One of the strange things I remember from that time is the PX in Nha Trang had a real hard time getting rid of Fresca soda. There were pallets of cases of the stuff stacked on the floor of the place, and you could go in weeks or months later and it would still be there with the price marked down a little bit more every time. Never did figure that one out.
It can also make you wonder what happened after the war: Did the NVA scarf up all that Fresca, or was it declared toxic waste under the Geneva Convention?
Perry, I hope that every can of Fresca was taken prisoner. You know that stuff was shoved down our throats because LBJ and Lady Bird both owned stock in Coca-Cola. My best description of it’s taste was warm piss with a drop of lemon lime.You could never get the pull tab to work and if somehow you did manage to get the can cooled down,you had to take your P-38 to it or punch a hole in it with a bullet and then pour it into something else. So,Yea,I hope the NVA did take control of all of it. Serves them right.
Claw………ah good ole Fresca. While stationed at Phu Loi, I remember that nasty shit stacked behind the PX. That stuff was so bad, it was left out in the open. No one would even steal it.
You mentioned earlier, the only beer you got was Black Label. Serves you right for being so far north. He’ll, we had Bud, miller and some others I can’t remember.
Remember the song? “Mabel, black label, carling black Label beer.
If the rocket scientists could have figured out a way to air deliver Fresca instead of Agent Orange we would never have had to put any boots on the ground at all.We could have just turned that territory into another Gobi Desert and been done with it. Nope,sorry,I don’t remember that jingle. Must have been a down south thing.
Phildo’s dad probably took it and reapportioned it for another purpose while lining his pockets with government money that he was not entitled too.
And everyone here wonders how Commander Phil Monkress at All-Points Logistics became such a shitbag and thief.
Heredity!
Reading a good book: This Kind of War by T.R. Fehrenbach. About Korean War. Really good.
“Bloodlands” a history of Poland/Ukraine/ Russia/Belorus from 1920-1945. Heartbreaking, though.
Thanks….will add it to the list. Always up for good book recommendations, as well a recipes. Btw, This Kind of War is heart breaking as well. Perhaps we will never learn…
Good humor too though (Hondo). Read at paragraph that begins “meanwhile” about what PFC Peavey did before the outbreak of war: http://books.google.com/books?id=TA4eAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30&lpg=PT30&dq=pfc+peavey+korea&source=bl&ots=ivgf9R0kWE&sig=5NuUqF6AfkpQFuCf4IiCu4sUkhw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6EfdU5HWIe_hsATM_YGADQ&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ
You sure that guy’s name wasn’t actually Minderbinder, GDContractor? (smile)
“CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D.”, is a favorite Hollywood movie that I accidentally discovered at the YOU TUBE web site, and then posted on my own personal web site, “OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE”.
I also read the novel, many, MANY years ago, when it was published in the “READER’S DIGEST CONDENSED BOOKS”.
For the best effect, please be sure to enjoy watching, in “FULL SCREEN” mode, this hilarious video recording of the 1963 motion picture production, “CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D.”, starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Bobby Darin, James Gregory, Eddie Albert, and Robert Duvall.
Filmed at beautiful Fort Huachuca (pronounced we-gotcha)
Three weeks of going off to do some stuff for the Gub’mint, and straight back to my regular job. Oh well, I’m eating my beloved Wife’s cooking now versus three MRE’s a day (Meals, Ready to Eat, also known as Meals Rejected by Ethiopians or Mostly Recycled Entrails)! I’ll get a day off soon enough, it’ll then be time for a few beers, and I think I’ll relax and watch “The Outlaw Josey Wales” one more time!
Interview with Fisher House CEO in latest American Legion Magazine:
Ken Fisher has heard from thousands of military and veteran families, all grateful for a free place to stay while loved ones receive medical care. There’s one note, though, he cherishes most. “It says, ‘Dear Ken’ – not Mr. Fisher, I don’t like that – ‘thank you for allowing me to spend Christmas with my son.’ That’s it. “Can you imagine?” he says. “What would have happened if this program wasn’t there and these parents couldn’t afford a hotel?”
http://www.legion.org/magazine/223486/serve-those-who-served
And again thanks to all my friends who already supported my fundraising for such a worth charity. For those who may be interested in donating: http://fhf.convio.net/goto/patquinn
I organized a Christmas dinner at Fisher House at Lewis-McChord one year for Soldiers’ Angels. I was truly impressed by not only how lovely the place was, but by the professionalism and warmth of the people on staff.
I wasn’t going to fund raise again after 2012, but then they stepped in to pay death benefits when the gov’t shutdown. No ads and very little non-program expenses. Virtually all money goes to the mission. This will be the third year fund raising at the ATM. Hope the back holds up 🙂
looks Big Army has finally picked a pattern:
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140731/NEWS07/307310083/UPDATE-New-images-show-details-new-Army-camo
*looks like
Jesus age Christ. Good job Natick nerds. All you did was spend millions of dollars to rip off MultiCam and slap a new name on it. Way to justify your employment,dicks.
The pattern and colors look like the three year old BDUs that we shit canned at the end of a rotation at the NTC. Why can’t they just go back to the same fatigue uniform across the board for all services? Oh that’s right,Coolness Factor.
Good question. I thought the new Air Force ACUs were going to be the thing to wear everywhere (they have been the last few years) – but now they’re issuing OCPs (multicams) for deployments. I should have invested in uniform manufacturing.
So, what I want to know is are 2/17 Air Cav and 3/17 Air Cav two different people or one typing mistake?
Yes,two completely different guys.
Claw…….I represent that statement! (smile)
John Adams wrote that Americans should forever revere and celebrate our Independence Day on the Second day of July.
Just now, when I looked at the “ARCHIVING EARLY AMERICA” web site, I saw that on this date, 02 August 1776, the parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence was signed by members of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Here, for your edification and further elucidation, is the URL:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/
In other words, today is a good day to go have a PARTY ! ! !
Any more news about whatshisname, the guy rumored to not know how much fuel he needed in his plane? I see that his imbecilic cohort is still proving what a perpetual idiot he is!!
The guy from way back that never was A CPO in any capacity?
Yeah, kinda, and I heard that HE WAS DENIED admission to the Oregon Bar Association as well, thus he was never an Attorney at Law in that State!!
He claimed that he never received the horse’s ass medal. Someone should photo shop his head to a horse’s ass.
Boys and girls, I just finished my last ever inspection in the military. Lord, I will not miss those. When I finally decided to retire and put the paperwork in, I started making a list of stuff I was gonna do. Number one is throw out every damn hat I have! What would be on the top of your list?
Actually, I bought about 30 hats – never had a civilian cap before.
I’ve been doing it for 26, will probably stick it out for four more… but when I do retire, I’m looking forward to going to the PX needing a haircut and a shave!
I have a sailboat in Deltaville Va. You come take a trip with me and Ill bet you think again about 4 more.
You got yourself a deal Dave. Next time I’m on the east coast, I’ll let you know. Beer is on me!
I have fantasized about making a retirement speech something like this: “Now that I’m retired and don’t have to follow Army rules anymore, I’m going to grow a beard and smoke marijuana. No, no…that was just a joke. I actually have no intention of growing a beard.”
I do intend to grow a beard. Even if the law would allow me to smoke marijuana, though, my wife’s disapproval would not. Happy wife, happy life. Fortunately, she comes from a Catholic family and has no objection to alcohol.
Had an E8 at an inbound HREO training in Germany tell an O-6 who had asked what he was going to do after retirement “Sir, I’m going to stand on a street corner and give nickel headers till I get my self-respect back.”
Well, I have foregone my turn in the rotation of bush rustling to enjoy the mountains of northern New Hampshire with the family.
That’s right, you know who. My family, who loves me, and I give them all my love and support. IOW, I will never be the deadbeat dad you are.
Chew on that for a while.
Nice verbal punch in the kisser, he’ll probably interpret that as a threat in his imbecilic mind and shit flaming squirrels again!
Same here, NHSparky. I’ve been shooting dragons and clouds this week, so I have no time for petty little men quivering at the sight of botany at the door.
Anyone with such a narrow view of life, such an obssession with falsely slamming people and trying to OOO! scare them, is a waste of time.
I must agree, Ma’am, he perpetually torments himself! To me, he appears to be the type that is never happy until he thinks he has made everyone else feel as miserable as he makes himself.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher claims to have killed Russians during the Cold War, and to have arm wrestled Putin:
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Dana-Rohrabacher-Europe-Putin-Russia/2014/08/01/id/586404/
Don’t tell Faker 6. He’ll whip out a plastic etool and hit her in nose with it. Putin is his secret love-child. Read it in one of his books.
Dear Mr. Guy54
You read one of my books? YOU’RE the one! My readership just doubled. Thank you for that.
Putin never showed up at my commercial one week military style adventure camps. If you’ve watched my video, you know I would have kicked his ass if he had.
Since you’ve read a number of my books, then you know I was in Russia before the assault on Beslan and I apparently may have a hankering for Green Berets in me. I’ll leave it to you figure out which one is true.
sincerely
John “Faker 6” Giduck
I went to my grandaughter’s birthday party the other day. It was held at a public playground and gazebo. There were little kids running around all over the place. I noticed that roughly half the people there were carrying. Not a single person batted an eyelash. I love living in a gun friendly State.
DITTO, Twist! My State has CCW reciprocity with many others, so legally carrying concealed while on vacation is no problem!!
Afternoon snack for tomorrow. 😀
Blood Orange, Cranberry and Pear Salsa
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
3 pears peeled,chopped or diced(or you can use canned and rinse off the juice)
4 blood oranges, peel and chop or diced 3 of them. Set other one aside for later.
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, chopped
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup blood orange juice(use the fourth orange for this maybe less than a 1/4 of juice when squeezed, so plan accordingly)
4 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Combine all the ingredients in a glass bowl mixing well, but be gentle so as not to smash up the orange pieces to much.
Cranberries are tart, so add honey and juice to taste.
You can puree this like a Mex salsa which is really yummy too, wll look like red apple sauce.
Serve either warm or chilled…I liked it best chilled, with your favorite chips.
Hey Toasty Coastie, where are you finding fresh bog berries this time of year? Cranberries don’t show up here (Maryland)until mid-Fall.
@AW1Ed~
I actually had some left from last year that I canned. You can use the frozen ones from the grocery if you want.
Service members may be charged under Art 134 for carrying a concealed weapon. It appears to apply to a gun in the glove box or a car. WTF?
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20140731/OFFDUTY/307310067/Ask-Lawyer-Concealed-weapon-has-broad-meaning?sf29236618=1
I think that column makes a bigger deal of the issue than it merits.
In order to constitute an offense under Article 134 it’s not enough to show that the act happened. The prosecution must also prove that the act was contrary to good order and discipline, or was of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces. This would be pretty tough to show, I would think, if one is carrying off duty, off post, and in compliance with the law of the state in which one resides.
The one case cited in the column involved a Coast Guardsman who had a personal weapon in his shipboard locker. If you’re thinking about taking a personal weapon onto military property, you’d be smart to acquaint yourself with the rules of your particular service and installation.
They keep going and going. Watch the first few minutes of the video then read Scotty’s info.
and then,
http://scotty-stolenvaloroffendersexposed.blogspot.com/2013/06/megan-morse-marine-embellish-er-combat.html
From what I can tell she still makes money ‘serving veterans’.
What caught my eye was this picture she is sporting on her profile with a real hero and badass Kyle Carpenter. How does she still have access to real hero’s?
http://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmorse1
Sunday dinner pork chops are in the brine, and will be oven-fried. Sides are wild rice, steamed mixed veg and gravy. Chilled Chianti is a given.
Brining is key for tender, moist, and flavorful pork and poultry, and is dead easy. I use 1/2 cup each of sea salt and brown sugar, to about a gallon of water. A couple hours in the brine for chops or similar sized poultry- overnight for a roast or whole bird- two days for a shoulder. Try it- you’ll be surprised at the difference it makes.
Felchy Phil and his boys at All-Points Logistics continue to solicit contracts even though their Commander, Phil Monkress, has been exposed as a fraud, charlatan, drunk and criminal.
Makes one wonder actually whose name is going on the dotted line?
My master plan blew up in my face today. An idea I have had for a couple of years was to go to the local National Guard Armory with a table and information to get new members for the American Legion.
I proposed doing this at my Legion meeting last month, it was met with approval. I went to the Armory in Albuquerque and spoke to the liaison there who like the idea and offered her enthusiastic support.
We showed up today to find the armory empty; the MP company had been bussed up to Farmington for a Battalion formation and the ASMD was off supporting the RST. The Med Det was there so we passed out a bunch of booklets and applications for the Legion. Met a few soldiers who remembered me and I remembered them.
I will try again next month.
Pardon me while I get on a bit of a soap box. I just need to vent to people who are not completely ignorant sons of bitches who wouldn’t know what an actual war crime was if a member of an enemy military force spelled it out to them while sodomizing them with a rifle barrel on camera! Everywhere I look, people are saying that Israel launching anything toward a refugee camp or a school or a hospital should be prosecuted as a war crime. When I bring up that Hamas is actually firing rockets from those positions, they just say it is propaganda from Israel to justify the war crimes. Well, are these three videos just Israeli propaganda? Reporter outside of a U.N. School in Gaza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MJdKm_lxwY FLIR view of a school playground in Gaza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-fh-fRs7To Reporter inside of a U.N. Refugee Center in Gaza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaqWqjb4w6s Even when confronted with the evidence, they still say that it is up to the United Nations to stop them from using those places to launch weapons from. I bring up the fact that the U.N. found rockets hidden in a school and just turned them over to Hamas, and the people say that will prevent them from using the school to store weapons anymore. You know, forget the fact that the U.N. is handing illegal explosives over to terrorists. It just boggles my mind how much people can empathize with a group that would gladly kill every one of them if they had a rocket that would reach this far. They don’t care that Israel just wants to be left alone. They don’t care that the Hamas rockets are sent randomly hurtling into the middle of civilian areas at all hours of the day or night. These people are just complaining that Israel should give back all of the land “they seized” to make their country to its rightful owners and let the “state of Palestine” exist again. They are so ignorant as to not even realize that the area wasn’t even controlled by the so-called Palestinians before it was given to… Read more »
Well stated.
But you are preaching to the choir, my man.
Preaching to the choir.
Unequivocal support for the Jewish state.
I know…
I just needed to get this off my chest somewhere that I wouldn’t be called anti-Muslim or a war-monger or something just as vile.